This is at the root of many problems in education: in the private sector if something goes wrong with a large company or a corporation it's usually upper-level management that's held to the fire. In public education, teachers are the first ones to get the heat. They are the first ones held accountable when things go wrong. Administrators, on the other hand, are rarely held in account. Superintendents in particular are very difficult to remove when a district is falling apart. They are accountable to a school board who may or may not know anything about education and academic learning. Most often these people receive a token salary and work other full-time jobs.
The former superintendent from the district I work in wanted to do away with letter grades, make all classes interdisciplinary, and give everyone a diploma. He never taught a day in a public school. He was a school psychologist who had no respect for academics. The outgoing, ousted, governor of our state tried to appoint this guy as state commissioner of education. Apparently, some dirt was dug up on this guy and the stiff gov. had to withdraw his nomination. Within another month the school district bought out the super's contract and he was gone. The minutes from that school board meeting were sealed for fifty years! Sounds like a backroom deal to me..
This brings up an interesting point: if there had been better supervision, would the teachers have agreed to the rock-collecting as punishment? Without some more details, I'm not sure how I would feel about it. How insubordinate was the child? (Blew off a couple assignments, refused to do any schoolwork, or something in between?) How long was the punishment supposed to last?
The story doesn't tell us what the girl did wrong. But it does seem to indicate it was the lack of security that had the teachers so upset.
In either case, agree or disagree with punishment of rock collecting, my main point was simply that it was wonderful to see these teachers take a stand for what they believed was right.
Mathman,
I agree the teachers get the short end of the stick on many levels, and yet they have one of the most difficult jobs.
You may find I complain from time to time about a teacher, but in general I will support and advocate for teachers. It is usually the administration or the government's handling of our schools that ....es me off.
i was on the school board once. what a thankless job but i knew that befor i ran. i was always the teachers advocate, i believe there is a special place in heaven for them and i salute them,God knows i couldn't do it!! if the little girl has been doing something she shouldn't or not doing something she should than she should be punished and pickin up a few rocks wouldn't hurt her.. but to be unsupervised??? NO NO NO hat's off to the teachers who prosted! it took balls
That superintendant, Doerhoff, sounds like a real creep. So to him it was "insubordination" for this teacher to help the student? Sounds like a real control freak. Come to think of it, it sounds like the superintendant took sadistic pleasure in putting the student in her "place". That could have a traumatic effect on the student, and by helping her the teacher partly restored her self esteem and so the super goes ballistic. What an *******!
Anything's possible with limited info. The student could be a rebellious child who needs more discipline and the teacher could have already had a history with the super and this incident made it come to a head, but 7 other teachers willing to quit their jobs??? I'm glad I don't live in that school district.
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ChasUFarley
This is a rare post by Mathman (Chas' hubby):
This is at the root of many problems in education: in the private sector if something goes wrong with a large company or a corporation it's usually upper-level management that's held to the fire. In public education, teachers are the first ones to get the heat. They are the first ones held accountable when things go wrong. Administrators, on the other hand, are rarely held in account. Superintendents in particular are very difficult to remove when a district is falling apart. They are accountable to a school board who may or may not know anything about education and academic learning. Most often these people receive a token salary and work other full-time jobs.
The former superintendent from the district I work in wanted to do away with letter grades, make all classes interdisciplinary, and give everyone a diploma. He never taught a day in a public school. He was a school psychologist who had no respect for academics. The outgoing, ousted, governor of our state tried to appoint this guy as state commissioner of education. Apparently, some dirt was dug up on this guy and the stiff gov. had to withdraw his nomination. Within another month the school district bought out the super's contract and he was gone. The minutes from that school board meeting were sealed for fifty years! Sounds like a backroom deal to me..
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GeorgeStGeorge
This brings up an interesting point: if there had been better supervision, would the teachers have agreed to the rock-collecting as punishment? Without some more details, I'm not sure how I would feel about it. How insubordinate was the child? (Blew off a couple assignments, refused to do any schoolwork, or something in between?) How long was the punishment supposed to last?
George
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Abigail
The story doesn't tell us what the girl did wrong. But it does seem to indicate it was the lack of security that had the teachers so upset.
In either case, agree or disagree with punishment of rock collecting, my main point was simply that it was wonderful to see these teachers take a stand for what they believed was right.
Mathman,
I agree the teachers get the short end of the stick on many levels, and yet they have one of the most difficult jobs.
You may find I complain from time to time about a teacher, but in general I will support and advocate for teachers. It is usually the administration or the government's handling of our schools that ....es me off.
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
i was on the school board once. what a thankless job but i knew that befor i ran. i was always the teachers advocate, i believe there is a special place in heaven for them and i salute them,God knows i couldn't do it!! if the little girl has been doing something she shouldn't or not doing something she should than she should be punished and pickin up a few rocks wouldn't hurt her.. but to be unsupervised??? NO NO NO hat's off to the teachers who prosted! it took balls
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johniam
That superintendant, Doerhoff, sounds like a real creep. So to him it was "insubordination" for this teacher to help the student? Sounds like a real control freak. Come to think of it, it sounds like the superintendant took sadistic pleasure in putting the student in her "place". That could have a traumatic effect on the student, and by helping her the teacher partly restored her self esteem and so the super goes ballistic. What an *******!
Anything's possible with limited info. The student could be a rebellious child who needs more discipline and the teacher could have already had a history with the super and this incident made it come to a head, but 7 other teachers willing to quit their jobs??? I'm glad I don't live in that school district.
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
maybe that super wold have been a goon man in the vey as a control freak
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